Devirtualization
by Echoes of Lyoko
Summary: What happens when you have a virus that refuses to be deleted, a new warrior, and a man thought dead coming to life? This. Takes place after episode 95: Echoes. AxJ, very slight YxU in later chapters. Warning: Touching up chapters.
1. Early Bird Gets the Worm

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko, but I own this game. -holds up (insert game I own here)-**

Read and review, please! Constructive criticism accepted!

--

It was 5:30 on a serene Saturday morning, and Jeremie was sleeping in his bed-- the supercomputer was destroyed, Aelita was out of danger, XANA was gone-- most importantly to the young boy resting peacefully, Aelita was safe.

The door to his room clicked, and a certain girl with pink hair slipped into his room and softly shut the door. Aelita slowly smiled as she saw how peaceful his face was, now that his enemies were out of the way. She felt like going over to him and giving him a big hug, but she knew she couldn't do that. She looked over at his computer. It was on, but idle at that moment. Suddenly, she saw a IM pop up on the screen. She looked at the username, and gasped. _It couldn't be..._

"Daddy?" she exclaimed softly, as not to wake Jeremie. She looked back, unsure of whether to wake him or not.

_This is Franz Hopper. I don't know if any of you are even awake right now, but it's my only chance. I'm trapped in the supercomputer, and something- or someone- turned the computer back on. Please respond.._

She decided to reply. But before she could, Jeremie stirred and woke up, stretching. She looked over at him again, getting up and walking over to his bed. He rubbed his eyes and yawned before speaking.

"Aelita? Is that you?" She nodded faintly.

She almost forgot what she was about to say when he wearily smiled at her. She smiled back at him.

"Come over here!" she whispered excitedly. "I think my dad is trying to communicate with us!"

"But why did you come in here at this hour?" he whispered back. It seemed that he had shook off the morning fog.

Her cheeks went the slightest shade of pink as she replied, stammering, "W-well, I was just going to check up on you, and then this popped up on your computer." He grinned then.

Jeremie moved over to his computer and looked at the incoming ID. He seemed deep in thought for a moment before speaking.

"Aelita, could you please get the ID papers from the drawer?" he asked.

She looked up, lost in her thoughts about a certain genius. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

He repeated the question, and she replied, "Of course." She walked over to the set of drawers, opened one, and turned as red as a beet. She quickly slammed it back shut. _Man, this is not my day_, she thought.

Jeremie looked over at her, noticing she was blushing, and asked, "Is everything all right?"

She hurriedly said, "It's nothing, Jeremie, just the wrong drawer."

Knowing which drawer she had opened, he blushed as well. "It's the third drawer down," he mumbled.

"Here they are, Jeremie," she called, walking back over to him.

"Thanks. You can sit here, if you want," he said, rising from his seat and offering it to her.

"Thank you. You're always so nice…" _to me_, she added in her mind.

"It's… nothing, Aelita," he stammered, blushing. "Well, let's get to work on..." _I can't believe I'm saying this... _"your dad's materialization."

--

As Jeremie finished typing in the last string of data for Franz Hopper's materialization, he stood up.

"Aelita, would you do the honors?" he asked, bowing.

She giggled. "Of course I will!" She pressed the 'Enter' key and ran to the elevator, along with the rest of the group. Odd mashed the button to go to the scanner floor, and off they went.

As the elevator doors opened, Aelita was the first one out, running toward the scanner. It emitted some steam, but she held her breath and waited.

Jeremie came up beside her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "It's going to be all right, Aelita."

"Thanks, Jeremie," she smiled uneasily, as she awaited the door's opening. Suddenly, the doors released, and the smoke started to clear.

"Can you see anything?" Odd shouted from behind them all. He had gotten there the last, and therefore was at the back of the room.

"No, not yet," Jeremie replied. "Wait... I see something.. it's-" he was interrupted by the pink form next to him. "It's my dad!" she cried, running up to hug him. Franz smiled, stood up and hugged his daughter.

Jeremie, who was grinning occasionally removing his glasses and wiping his eyes, looked like he had never been happier. Aelita pulled back and smiled at her dad.

"I thought... that'd I'd never see you again," she sobbed out. Franz spoke for the first time in who knows how long.

"I admit, I thought it not possible... after what happened before you shut down the supercomputer... but, here I am..." he whispered gently, walking out of the scanner. Almost everyone in the room was crying tears of joy.

Aelita seemed to realize at that moment that Jeremie was still there, and turned back around. She smiled at him, and spoke, her voice cracking,

"Jeremie... meet my dad."


	2. Staring, Soccer, Starving, Stupid Titles

**DISCLAIMER**:** I don't own Code Lyoko. But David Tyree owns.**

11:23 AM Saturday

"So..." none other than Odd shouted, "where are we eating?"

"_You,_" Aelita said in a foreboding tone, "are eating by yourself."

"What? What did I ever do to you?"

"Let's see now..." Jeremie started, "first of all, your dog--"

He was interrupted by Odd. "Never mind, I probably don't want to know anyway."

Aelita burst into laughter at that moment, trying to talk but failing.

Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "Odd, I was just kidding. But you have to promise not to spill anything or act like a glutton."

Odd's mouth fell open. "What? Are you kidding? I'm not clumsy!" He then proceeded to trip over his feet walking to the computer to play a game of Zombie Raider 2. "Okay, that was a fluke."

Jeremie sighed, looking at Aelita. "Look at that- he can't even admit it!"

She smiled and shrugged. "Oh well, it's worse for him, because he might come down with chronic clumsiness!"

He grinned. "So, Aelita, but where do you want to eat?"

She thought for a moment. "Hmm... how about Applebee's?"

Odd's ears perked up at this from behind the chair. "They serve huge portions!"

Aelita grinned mischeviously. "Only if you pay for your own meal."

"If I pay for my own meal, will you two have a staring contest?"

Jeremie sighed, but it seemed like a small price to pay for keeping Odd from devouring everyone else's meals. "It seems pretty pointless, but okay..."

--

The contest had gone on for about 2 minutes, and neither contestant was showing signs of fatigue. Odd grinned. He had just single-handedly set up the cutest couple at Kadic to have to stare at each other for as long as possible. Now he just had to ditch them.

Suddenly, Odd's phone went off. He put his hand on his head in fake realization. "Oh! I had that thing I had to go to!" He grinned and snuck to the door, so as not to disturb the intensely focused couple behind him. He slipped out of the room quietly. They didn't even notice.

"Fancy your chances, Jeremie?" Aelita said.

"Fancy yours?" came the reply from a grinning Jeremie.

She smiled back. She then had an idea about how to win. She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.

Without blinking, of course.

He flopped over on the bed, blushing red. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it, then opened it again. Stuttering, he said, "You had to do that to win?"

She shook her head. "No, I just felt like it." Her cheeks were tinged pink from her sudden action.

His eyes found her eyes, and she thought her heart skipped a beat. He looked away after he realized that it had been about two minutes that they were just looking in each other's eyes. A silence ensued.

He sat up. "So... what do you want to do now?" he said, finally breaking the awkward silence. She walked over to the phone.

"Well, maybe we could go out and eat, like Odd suggested. Wait a minute... Odd? Where is he?" she wondered, looking around the room. Jeremie, tapping his finger on his head, whispered, "I.. think he ditched us."

Aelita laid her head on her palm. "Just great. What now?"

Jeremie thought for a minute, then replied, "We could always go play a bit of soccer."

Looking up at this, she raised her eyebrow. "Since when have you been into soccer?"

"Well, ever since Jim's training program, I've been running to the factory and back twice a day," he said, unsure of how she would respond.

"Really?" She walked back over to the bed and put a hand around his biceps. She gasped in mock horror. "Oh no, it IS his clone!"

At this, he grinned. "I'm serious. Do you want to go play soccer?"

"Sure," she replied, "let me go get my ball."

--

Once they had finally arrived, she headed for the goal posts. **(A/N: What are they called again? XD)**

"Let's see how good you are at shooting," she shouted at him from the goal.

_This won't be easy,_ he thought as he set up his shot. He thought to give it just a little spin to throw Aelita off. He kicked it, and the ball looked like it was heading straight. Aelita dove, the ball curving sharply left, and her fingertips barely brushed the whizzing object. It sailed right into the net-- inches from the pole. She got up, brushing herself off. Awestruck, her mouth fell open.

"How..." she started, passing the ball to Jeremie.

"No idea," he replied, as he trapped the ball under his foot and prepared to make another shot.

--

After they had finished, they walked back to Jeremie's dorm.

"I still can't believe you got that first shot. That was amazing!" She was stunned by how he did. He had gotten in about a quarter of his shots-- Aelita blocking almost all the rest.

"It wasn't _that_ good," he replied. "More luck than skill." Before Aelita had a chance to answer, his cell phone went off. He picked it up. "Ulrich? Yeah, hold on."

He put his hand over the phone, whispering to Aelita. "Applebee's still on?"

She nodded. "I'm starved."

"Okay, we'll meet you there." He closed his cell phone and grinned.

"So let's go, then!" she said, unconsciously snatching Jeremie's hand. "Oh... sorry." She pulled back her hand, but he took it back.

"N-no, it's okay..."_ Okay? It's better than that..._ he thought to himself, his face looking like a tomato.

She grinned, seeing his blush. They walked in silence until they came to the Applebee's.

He opened the door for her.

"Thank you, Jeremie."

"You're welcome, Aelita."

--

As they entered the restaurant, Odd noticed Jeremie and Aelita's locked hands.

"Did something happen while I was gone?" he said, nudging Jeremie.

Jeremie let go, trying to pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary. "Shut up, Odd," he said with his teeth clenched, as a deep blush spread across both his and Aelita's faces.

"So, did you save a table for us?" Aelita asked, changing the subject hurriedly.

"Uh, I think so. As long as no one broke in, jumped over the window booths and broke our table," Odd replied matter-of-factly.

"Okay, then, let's eat!" _Ironic... Usually I'm the one that wants to eat all the time,_ Odd thought. He knew it had something to do with the embarrased couple following him to the table.

--

"Aelita, you decided yet?" Jeremie asked, putting his menu down.

"Uh.. I think I'll have the Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl.. what about you?" she replied.

"Well, I was going to get the same thing, but I sure won't eat all of it... you wanna split a full order?"

"Sure, I guess."

She looked up at the TV screen. "Oh, looks like.. an American football game? They don't usually air them here..."

Odd smiled. "It's the Super Bowl. Man, for a couple of geniuses, you two don't follow current events."

Odd started pretending to be the announcer, much to the dismay of the customers.

"Fourth quarter, clock at 1:15. Giants have the ball. 3rd and 5 at the Giants' 44. He drops back to pass. It looks like he's going to go down, NO WAIT, he escaped the sack! He's rolling out of the pocket! He lobs it up! Tyree jumps for it! He's pinned the ball to his helmet!" At this point in the game, Odd jumped up on the chair.

"HE'S GOT IT! WHAT A PLAY! GIANTS HAVE IT AT THE 26!" A few loyal fans clapped, but most just stared.

"Oh. Sorry." came the embarrased apology from Odd, sitting down.

Ulrich reached over and flicked Odd. "Nice job there, Al Michaels."

Odd, starting to get defensive, said, "Hey! People were clapping for me!"

"No, genius, they were clapping for the _Giants_, not you." Ulrich retorted, a smile on his face.

"Who cares. Just watch the game," from Yumi. "You have to admit, it was a great catch."

"Yeah, it was." Ulrich decided to side with Yumi on this one.

"So," Odd said, "what happened while I was gone?"

Jeremie looked at his napkin and, as calmly as he could, replied, "_Nothing,_ Odd." Even so, a small blush crept along him and the girl twiddling her thumbs next to him.

"What happened, Odd?" Ulrich spoke up.

"I don't know yet, but these two came in here holding hands."

This worsened the couple's blush, and Aelita kicked Odd under the table. He yelped.

"Ow! That hurt!" Aelita smiled, despite her flushed face.

--

"Is the food here YET? I'm starving!"

"You're always starving, Odd."

"Makes sense that Ulrich would know- he's his roommate!" The group burst into laughter at this.

"So, Aelita, where's your dad?" Jeremie asked.

"Oh, he's at the car place... he needed to stop and check who gave him a loan," Aelita replied, giving obvious hints as to what she was meaning.

"Ah, I see." At that moment, the food arrived.

"Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl?" the waiter asked, holding a tray of food. Jeremie raised his hand.

"She has the other half," he said, pointing at Aelita. The waiter handed the two bowls over.

"Wow! This is a lot of food!" Jeremie exclaimed.

"Guess it's a good thing we split it," Aelita replied.

--

"Who's paying for what?" the waiter asked.

"Well, the black haired and brown haired kids are one ticket, the blonde with purple hair is one ticket, and we (he pointed to Aelita and himself) are one ticket."

Aelita smiled. "That's sweet, but I can pay for my own meal."

"I know, but I just want to pay for it. Please, Aelita. Think of it as a gift," Jeremie pleaded.

"Hmm... you're sure?" She looked him in the eye. He nodded.

"Okay, go ahead," she said, giving up.

--

**A/N: Possible JxA fluff and a dinner with Franz is next chapter. Awkwardness reigns.**

**A/N 2: Wow. Sooooooo many errors this chapter. I need to look these over more carefully. Sorry! **


	3. The New Guy

**A/N: I am extremely sorry for the delay, and I can't keep the promise of a dinner this chapter. I had writer's block for a long time, then the story just started writing itself, and I couldn't fit in a dinner in this portion... DX Enjoy Chapter 3, though. Why did I put CH.4 there? XD **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, AIM, the M249, the ps2, or Sony. I make no claims to any of it.**

**PLEASE read and review. I need help with this fic.  
**

--

10:24 AM, Sunday

Jeremie sat down at the computer and relaxed. He had never been more tired in his life- except when he stayed up nights working on Aelita's anti-virus, and on other anti-XANA programs. He clicked on the internet browser, and looked for something to do. _Without Aelita around..._ he thought, _it's not very exciting._

He smiled as his thoughts drifted to Aelita... how perfect she was, how beautiful, lovable... he felt his cheeks warm slightly at the last thought. Suddenly, he heard the door latch open. He swivelled his chair around, to see his princess stroll in.

"Hey, Jeremie," she said in a lighthearted tone.

"Hey," he replied, smiling back at her.

"So... what are you up to?" she asked, putting her arms loosely around his neck, standing behind the chair. She smiled as she watched him blush.

"N-nothing," he stuttered. He shifted in his chair. "Aelita? Could I ask you something?"

"Sure, ask me anything."

"A-are you busy... say.. Tuesday night?" he shyly asked.

"No, why do you ask?" She was confused by his question, until she remembered Yumi recounting Ulrich asking her out. This was how boys usually acted when they were asking a girl out.

"Well... I was wondering if you.. maybe would want to go catch a movie or something?" Despite the slight blush forming on his cheeks, he managed to look up at her and smile.

She couldn't help but adore the boy; after all, he had done so much for her, and he was so sweet, and kind... "As long as you don't bring your laptop." She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair. Just then, the computer started beeping.

"Oh no..." he breathed, "XANA is alive..."

--

10:24 PM CST, Saturday

TX, USA

AIM Convo

_machinegunner: I'll have to catch you later, I gotta go to bed so I don't bomb tomorrow's test._

_crannon4life: Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Good night!_

_machinegunner: night._

_machinegunner has signed off._

Andrew yawned as he exited AIM and clicked on Shut Down. Suddenly, the monitor froze up, and he sighed. "What now?" He looked at the monitor again. It went black, then an icon appeared, as large as the monitor. A red icon.

"This cannot be good." A semi-transparent black smoke emitted from the computer.

"You're kidding, right? My parents will kill me if they think I overclocked this." The smoke suddenly organized and attacked him. Surprised and having nothing to defend himself with, he closed his eyes and waited for death.

--

He felt his nerves tingling, as he slowly opened his eyes. There was a heavy weight on his back, as he realized he was floating in midair. That didn't last long, though, as he fell down to the ground, landing on his back. He got up and stood on what looked to be a green platform. Slowly turning around, he breathed, "Wow. So is this heaven?" He looked down at his outfit. "Army camos with dog tags and the whole nine yards? Sa-weet."

Suddenly, two Bloks came around a corner, and started firing at him. As lasers flew past his head, he yelled at no one in particular. Finding no cover, he hit the dirt and took out the weight on his back. It looked like an M249 machine gun. He smiled. "Just what I needed, although I have no idea why I have this."

He set the supporter down and squeezed the trigger twice, aiming through the ironsights. The lasers hit the outer shell of the first Blok, doing virtually nothing to it.

He grunted and thought for a second. "Wait a minute.. That eye looks like a bull's eye. Maybe if I... yes... that's it..."

He aimed right in the center of the first Blok's logo. He smiled. "Say your prayers." He squeezed off a few more rounds. He gasped as the Blok exploded, sending bits of virtual data flying.

"I thought I saw computer codes from the fragments of that Blok... is this a computer world?"

While he was thinking, the second Blok started firing. One of the shots hit his shoulder, and he cried out in pain. "Agh! So that's what lasers feel like."

He re-aimed the crosshairs at the second Blok, and fired. He smiled as the Blok went out-of-commission.

He heard some motors behind him. As he turned around, an annoying voice from behind him said, "Not bad."

He stood up and swung around the gun.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" He gritted his teeth.

"Woah, there. We aren't your enemies." came the reply from Aelita.

"I'm Odd, and we are the Lyoko Warriors!" Odd said royally.

He grinned. "You're a purple cat."

Odd frowned. "But I'm a cool-looking purple cat."

"Anyway. How did I get in this virtual world, and how do I get out?" Andrew said, a bit irritated with all the chat.

"I don't know how you got in, but I'm bringing you all in. Including... what's your name?" Jeremie asked.

"Andrew. What do you mean you're bringing us in?"

Odd grinned cheekily. "You'll see."

Aelita frowned. "But if there's a tower activated..."

"Oh yeah, we still need to deactivate it. Andrew, your job right now is to protect Aelita– the one in pink– as she enters the tower." Jeremie said, already scanning for monsters.

"All right." He reloaded his M249. "I'll go on foot. Much easier to aim that way."

"The tower is near you, northwest." Jeremie said. "Careful, two Hornets are approaching."

Andrew sprinted ahead of the group and found a good spot, then laid down and extended the supporter. "Jeremie, am I in-range?"

Jeremie pulled up a window. "Yes, but you'll have to be very accurate. It's almost impossible to hit them from here."

He smiled. "Accurate? That's my middle name." He squeezed off a few rounds, taking out both Hornets. Suddenly, he got hit with a barrage of lasers.

"Careful- you have... wait, that can't be right..."

"What, Jeremie?" Aelita asked, waiting for a chance to make a break for it.

"He has... 130 hit points left." He glanced at Andrew's virtual card. "With a maximum of 200."

Andrew's mouth fell open, as did the others. "Wow. Talk about overkill."

"It might come in handy. The lasers that hit you? They came from 10 Bloks, which are guarding the tower." Jeremie said, looking ahead.

Andrew smiled. "If I'm an Army soldier... then..." He reached down and pulled something that was latched onto his belt. He held it up triumphantly.

"A grenade. Perfect." He reclipped it and took off another.

"Even better, we can use this one for cover." He clipped it back onto his belt and ran straight for the tower.

"What is that lunatic doing?" Ulrich yelled.

Andrew turned back and stopped long enough to shout back, "Saving our skins, that's what I'm doing!" He threw a smoke grenade between the tower and himself, got down and started spraying into the smoke. Hearing several explosions, he knew he was on the right track.

Ulrich frowned. "You're not stealing all my kills. Super Sprint!" he yelled, as he ran toward two Bloks and ran his sword through both of their eyes. "Impact!"

He was about to slice another Blok before a pink field flew across the green platform and hit the Blok, effectively ending it's service.

Yumi threw both her fans at one of the two remaining Bloks, but both fans just missed the eye. Odd smiled. He knew he would get one sooner or later."Laser Arrow!" he cried, shooting 3 arrows. Two missed, but one hit the insignia.

Andrew squeezed off a final round and the final Blok exploded. "All clear, Aelita!" he shouted, as she entered the tower.

--

"Devirtualization: Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita, then Odd and Andrew." Jeremie said over the headset.

"Devirtualization? That sounds dangerous." Andrew cringed visibly.

"Don't worry. It's nothing." Odd grinned again.

Andrew sighed as he rolled his eyes. "I'm sure it is." he said with a note of sarcasm. He sat down, Indian-style, and watched as the others disappeared out of sight. He exhaled a breath as he felt himself start to fade away.

--

Andrew was sitting in the scanner when the doors opened. Ulrich held out his hand, Andrew taking it and standing up.

"I'm Ulrich, and this is Aelita, Yumi, Odd, and Jeremie." He pointed to them respectively.

Andrew smiled, despite the situation. "It's nice to meet you all. So... why is it already noon? It was about 11 PM when I entered Lyoko."

Jeremie thought for a minute. "Wait... where are you from?"

"Texas."

Jeremie froze. "You're... in France now."

Andrew's eye twitched. "You mean I'm stuck here in France- no offense- and my parents don't even know that I'm gone? What am I supposed to do?"

"We'll just figure out how you got into Lyoko, then that should help us find out how you can get back home... Unless XANA made a Replika in your town, which I seriously doubt." came the reply from Jeremie.

"Great. You guys don't have a PS2 by any chance, do you?"

"Why would you need a mouse port?"

"Oh shut up-- you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I do a lot of tweaking on it. Something to do when I'm bored."

--

**Definitely not my best chapter. DX R&R, please.  
**


	4. Unexpected Attack

**A/N: -ahem- I don't own CL. Sorry for the long delay. Still dealing with writer's block and being ultra-busy. Will be on vacation for about a week. .**

- - - - -

1:21 PM Saturday

France

"So, mind telling us what exactly happened?" Jeremie asked, getting comfortable in the controller's chair. The rest of the gang were sitting quietly, just listening (amazing, eh?).

"I was just signing off a few chat programs, and then this black transparent smoke came out of the computer tower and somehow swallowed me up or something. I don't know how, but it did. And then I woke up in Pixel Land," replied Andrew, pacing the floor.

"Did you see anything right before you were virtualized?"

"A program came up on the computer. I only got a little time to look at it, but the program name was vrtlztn.exe. That was just before it froze."

Jeremie typed a few things into the supercomputer. "Just as I thought. XANA modified my virtualization program so that the scanned object doesn't have to be in a scanner, as long as a tower is active. The scanners' memory is still used, but XANA acts as the physical scanner."

Andrew cut in. "Wait a minute. Who- or what- is XANA?"

"XANA is the computer program that started this mess. Originally created to help Franz Hopper, it evolved, so to speak, into a crazed lunatic bent on killing us and wreaking havoc on the world."

Andrew stopped pacing. "So what does all this have to do with me getting back home?"

Jeremie frowned at this. "I can work on a program that will let you be devirtualized anywhere without scanners, but..." He was interrupted by a loud 'Yes!' from Andrew. "But it will take at least 6 months. Probably more, because not even XANA has been able to devirtualize things without the help of scanners."

"Well, what about my family? Can you check the local paper to see if there's anything there?"

"There wouldn't be anything there, seeing as it's still early in the morning where you live.." Jeremie rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Duh." He chuckled weakly. A second later, the computer started beeping.

Jeremie hit a key, switching the display to the Super Scan. "Don't tell me it's..." He was again interrupted, this time by Aelita. "XANA? No way he recovered that quickly."

Andrew sighed. "I'll go first." He got into the elevator and stood, waiting for the rest of the group to follow.

"Are you sure? It's probably just a false alarm. XANA has never attacked twice in the same day after being defeated once," Jeremie said, confident in his assumption.

"Never hurts to check," Andrew replied, as the others piled in, doors shutting. Jeremie held up his hands, sighing. "What can you do..."

- - - - -

Andrew opened his eyes as a dark sector unfolded before him. This one looked less jagged, more realistic. He flexed his sore muscles. Never in his life had he undergone such trials, much less in the middle of the night. He heard noises behind him, and saw Ulrich and Odd. Aelita and Yumi appeared shortly after.

Ulrich took his blade, somewhat impatient. "Jeremie, where's the tower? And what sector is this, anyway?"

Jeremie scratched his head in wonder. "Seems our friend XANA decided to play around with the Ice Sector. He did away with the fragments of land; instead, it's just a long piece of land. No digital sea to worry about, either. The lighting even changes!"

Aelita pondered this. "Why would he take away the digital sea? And what is XANA's attack?"

"We don't have time to think about that... anyway, the tower is south of you, about two hundred yards."

"I see it... it's giving off a shining red glow!" Ulrich cried. He walked, a bit apprehensively, toward the tower. Andrew was the rear-guard, while Yumi, Odd, and Aelita took up the middle section.

Suddenly, a laser shot out of nowhere, hitting Andrew in the knee. He cried out in pain as he was knocked backwards. The group swept the field with their eyes, looking for monsters.

"What was that?!" Andrew muttered. He kept his finger on the trigger now, his body tense. Suddenly another laser shot out, but he managed to avoid it, stopping abruptly.

"Turrets! Automated turrets!" he cried. They looked closer now, spotting a few small devices clamped next to the path. Ulrich figured it out quickly, slashing one of the connectors. All of the turrets suddenly powered off.

"Series circuit- if you kill one, they all go. But each shot slashes off fifty life points."

Odd whistled in amazement. "Looks like you'll need those extra life points, tank," he teased.

Andrew rolled his eyes. "Oh, shut up."

- - - - -

As they approached the tower, Ulrich opened his mouth, about to say something. Odd interrupted him. "No, wait. I know what you're going to say. 'This is too easy.'"

Ulrich raised an eyebrow. "Well, it is!" he said, indignant.

"Focus on your mission, guys. I just found out that XANA has taken over a squadron of Rafale M's, heading towards the Eiffel Tower. They are fully equipped with LASM's and UGB's. (Long-range Anti-Ship Missiles and UnGuided Bombs) ETA to attack is two minutes. So get going!"

Aelita ran toward the tower, while Ulrich and Odd flanked her. Andrew and Yumi stayed back, looking for more traps. Suddenly, Andrew yelled out, "Fighter jets inbound!"

Jeremie leaned forward in disbelief. "You're joking, right?"

Aelita ran faster toward the tower, which was about 20 yards away. "Four fighter jets. Yeah, it's true," she said, breathlessly.

The rest of the group could only watch as the fighters swept over the field, missiles being fired from all of them.

Andrew sighed in dismay. "We're screwed." A second later, the missiles slammed into the ground, devirtualizing all but Andrew. He lay on the ground in pain. His vision blurry, he rolled onto his stomach and vainly tried to set up a firing point.

Aelita entered the tower...

- - - - -

"The jets are in range now. We were utterly unprepared," one of the high-ranking officers in the Air Force stated in a news alert. The sky seemed to split in two as the jets slowed and prepared to fire.

- - - - -

Yumi, Ulrich and Odd made about five steps out of the scanners in all before they slumped to the ground, exhausted.

- - - - -

The squadron made a turn, heading straight for Andrew. He opened fire, but the bullets did no good. The jets completely ignored him this time, choosing instead to fire at the tower...

- - - - -

The tower interface opened, and Aelita entered the code...

CODE

LYOKO

She felt the tower shake, but nothing else happened. "Tower deactivated," she sighed, happy it was over.

- - - - -

The missiles had just touched the Eiffel Tower when a shining light engulfed it all.

- - - - -

"Well, that was strange..." Jeremie said. They were all sitting in the computer room of the factory. "Usually it sends us back a day. Wait, what's this?" He paused as he clicked on a file. "Not again... XANA messed with the Return to the Past program _again._"

"I thought you secured it," said Aelita.

"Maybe the computer shutting down would erase the protections?" Andrew wondered.

"That might be it. Anyway, he corrupted a lot of the code, so I'll have to re-work a lot of it." Jeremie sighed.

"So, where do I sleep tonight?" Andrew asked.

"There's always the Hermitage, although we would have to clean it up a bit." Aelita mentioned.

"Well... I could always help do some 'renovation'..." He put on a hopeful face. "Are you sure it's okay with your parents?"

"Yeah... He won't mind." Aelita said.

"Where is your dad, anyway?" Jeremie questioned.

"He's been working on a program to track all fragments of XANA on the network. He said that XANA backed itself up before it was destroyed, and then set the supercomputer to go on standby instead of shutting down completely. What's worse, the fragments are all spread out in various locations on the Internet. But at least the backup was a low-level program, not the last revision of the program." Aelita explained.

Andrew looked around the room idly. Odd was playing a video game, Ulrich and Yumi had stepped out, Aelita was leaning against the computer chair, which was occupied by Jeremie. The aforementioned teenager let out a somewhat bored sigh. He stood up. "Let's go get it done, then. I'm already tired from everything that just happened. Staying any longer here will probably make me fall asleep with my eyes open."

Odd looked up from his video game. "Get it done? What are we doing?"

Andrew raised an eyebrow and stared at him disbelievingly. "Have you even been _pretending_ to listen?"

The feline warrior shook his head with an audible "Uh-uh."

Andrew slapped his hand against his head. "We're going to do some renovations." He paused for a second. "That means you, too."

- - - - -

**A/N: So.. Yeah. Love it or hate it, it's here. Finally. XD**

**R&R please!**


End file.
